South Carolina Society Hall, located at 72 Meeting Street in downtown Charleston, is a premier, historic venue built between 1799 and 1804, offering an elegant, quintessentially Charleston atmosphere just perfect for hosting The Clan Donald Trust for the Gaelic Performing Arts in partnership with the Robert Burns Society of Charleston 2026 Scottish Performing Arts Classic – a premier international event for the performance Gaelic Arts.
The venue is ADA accessible with an elevator. While there is no dedicated on-site parking, parking is available on surrounding streets and in nearby garages.
As part of the Piccolo Spoleto series, this year’s 2026 Scottish Performing Arts Classic showcases world-class performers (hailing from Australia, Canada, Scotlan2d, New Zealand and the USA) competing during four events of the 2026 Scottish Performing Arts Classic – the Angus Katie McDonald Memorial Prize for Ceol Beag (Bagpipes), the Joseph MacDonald Memorial Prize for Piobaireachd (Bagpipes), the Princess Margaret of the Isles Memorial Prize for Clarsach (Harp) and the Dan Rory MacDonald Memorial Prize for Scottish Fiddle (Fiddle).
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Angus Katie McDonald Memorial Prize for Ceol Beag
4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Joseph MacDonald Memorial Prize for Piobaireachd
1:30 PM – 6:30 PM
One Day Bundle – Jun 5 Both Events
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Princess Margaret of the Isles Memorial Prize for Clarsach
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Dan Rory MacDonald Memorial Prize for Scottish Fiddle
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
One Day Bundle – Jun 6 Both Events
Angus J MacColl, of Oban, Scotland, has an impressive piping pedigree. Alongside his father, former gold medalist and Glenfiddich champion Angus D MacColl, he is considered one of the premier recitalists in Scotland. The younger Angus has several prominent prizes to his credit, including the MacGregor Memorial prize for junior piobaireachd at the Northern Meeting. His performances are highly sought-after and critically acclaimed, with past highlights including the Netherlorn Piping Society, The Celtic Connections Concert, The National Piping Center fall recital series, and the Lewis & Harris Piping Society.
Bruce Gandy is a Canadian bagpipe player and composer. He is an internationally respected bagpiper, teacher, composer, and adjudicator whose career uniquely bridges championship success with a lifelong dedication to developing thoughtful, confident musicians. A former World Pipe Band Champion with the 78th Fraser Highlanders, Mr Gandy has also achieved one of the most distinguished solo records in modern piping. His major prizes include the Silver Star for Former Winners MSR at Inverness, the Senior Piobaireachd at Oban, the Bratach Gorm in London (twice), and the Masters MSR in Glasgow. He belongs to a very small group of pipers to have won major prizes across five different decades, with a competitive record in North America that remains nearly unmatched.
Born and raised in the state of New Jersey, he is a professional bagpiper who moved to Glasgow, Scotland for four years and have returned to bring home what he had learned. He is a full time piping instructor based in Monmouth County, New Jersey and works to improve the piping community all along the east coast.
He teaches individuals and bands and routinely plays at weddings, funerals, birthday parties and other special events in New Jersey and surrounding states including New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Greg Wilson began piping at the age of nine. He has had considerable success on the solo competition boards in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Scotland. The highlights of his solo piping career are the Gold Medals at the Argyllshire Gathering and The Northern Meeting, and three Clasps to the Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting. After time in the New Zealand Army, Greg left the army to take up the position of Coordinator of the National Schools Piping Project at The Piping Centre in Glasgow. To date he has dozens of major prizes and over 30 New Zealand championship titles.
Bob Worrall is one of North America’s leading teachers, adjudicators and performers. Mr Worrall is a respected composer, having published three successful collections of bagpipe music. He is featured on three solo piping recordings and was a member of the folk group “Scantily Plaid”. Though Mr Worrall retired from competitive piping in 1983, his accomplishments were extensive, both in North America and Scotland. He won the North American Professional Championship an unprecedented seven times and the Ontario Professional Championship Supreme title for 12 of his 13 years in the professional class. He was also the 1977 winner of the March and Strathspey/Reel events in Inverness.
Bob has been selected to judge the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow on fourteen occasions. For the last twelve years he has been the colour commentator for the BBC’s broadcast of the World Pipe Band Championships. He is a member of the Piobaireachd Society’s Senior Judges list and has adjudicated major competitions throughout the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Brittany and South Africa.
Grace English is a lever harper living in Huntsville, Alabama with a long-standing love of Irish and Scottish music. She is a member of the Scottish Harp Society of America and has participated in SHSA competitions since 2016. Grace has also the pleasure of studying traditional music in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and at the Ohio Scottish Arts School. In 2024, she was awarded the Andrew Turner Memorial trophy for Harper of the Day, and first place in the Master Category in 2025 at the Ohio Scottish Games.
Upon receiving degrees in voice performance from the University of Southern California and Boston University, Mr Ruff continued musical pursuits focused on opera and classical genres. He spent three summers studying at the Scoil na gClairseach – Festival of Early Irish Harp in Kilkenny, Ireland – where he also taught from 2017-2019. He enjoyed a month of researching & studying early Gaelic Song in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2012, funded by a grant from Vassar College. Mr Ruff has served on the music faculties of at a number of prestigious institutions of higher learning. Mr. Ruff currently teaches voice at Vassar College and also maintains a private voice and harp studio.
Riko Komura is a prominent Celtic harpist. She was born and raised in Osaka prefecture of Japan, where she began learning piano and harp as a child. She began traveling to Scotland and Ireland for lessons, later attending the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow where she graduated with a master’s degree in traditional Scottish Music. She plays Scottish and Irish traditional and modern tunes arranged in a contemporary style as well as her own original composition influenced by Japanese folk music. Riko was the winner of the 2018 Princess Margaret of the Isles Memorial Prize for Senior Clarsach. Her most recent release is a debut album for King Records titled ‘Celtic Breeze’, recorded on a solo Celtic Harp. Recently, she moved to Boston, MA.
Chad MacAnally has performed professionally for over 20 years throughout the US, Canada and Ireland. Youthful interest in classical and traditional music led him to take up the wire strung harp in 1985, having his first lesson with renowned harper and storyteller, Patrick Ball. Having no harp to continue with, he built his first wire strung harp in his parent’s basement workshop at the age of 16. Self-taught on the harp for years, eventually he sought out Ann Heymann, who continues to lead the revival of the historical Gaelic harp. In 2009, Mr MacAnally won the prestigious National Scottish Harp Championship, sponsored by the Scottish Harp Society of America. He is only the second wire-strung harper to win the title in the history of the competition.
A master in the performance and traditions of the Gaelic harp, Ann Heymann continues to spearhead the instrument’s revival. Known for her symbiotic relationship with her instrument and her ability to wed performance practice with the recorded literary tradition, Mrs Heymann has a number of accomplishments to her name. She authored the first tutor for the instrument, based upon the first tunes taught student harpers in the old tradition (Secrets of the Gaelic Harp and A Gaelic Harper’s First Tunes). Under the name “Clairseach” (Irish for “Gaelic harp”), Ann and her husband Charlie perform a broad spectrum of repertoire–from traditional and historical to Mrs Heymann own compositions–throughout the United States, Europe and Australia.
Louise Bichan is a USA-based Scottish musician and photographer who uses both mediums to tell stories old and new. Growing up in the remote but culturally rich Orkney islands of Scotland gave Ms Bichan a solid grounding in music. She started playing fiddle at the age of 7 after witnessing the magic of live music. In the years since, she has honed her craft, first in Glasgow’s renowned session scene, and later a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Masterfully blending traditional and classical arrangements, she composes in response to her roots and the world around her, weaving through stories of connection, to people, nature, the past, and the possibility of the future.
Shane Watson is fiddler who has studied under Dr. John Turner and other through the Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddle. Originally hailing from the North Carolina High Country, Shane’s primary fiddle focus is centered on Scottish traditional tunes of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Shane works at Appalachian State University as the Erneston Music Library Manager and serves as the Organist and Choir Director at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Valle Crucis, NC. In addition to music he is an avid historical re-enactor with the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers in America, portraying one of the premier British regiments at the time of the American Revolution; which despite the name, during this period was mostly made up of soldiers from Ulster, Ireland and across Scotland.
David Gardner is a nationally recognized Scottish fiddle performer, teacher and judge. He has been performing on the Scottish fiddle since the 1980’s. Mr Gardner is a specialist in the performance of 18th century Scottish music using bows and instruments set up as they would have been in that era. Mr. Gardner currently works as a German teacher at Warwick High School, for the Newport News Public School system, as well as lead teacher for foreign languages and fine arts. In years past he performed with various classical ensembles including the Richmond Chamber Players and the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra.
Paula Johannesen Desimone is a Chicagoland Violinist, violist, fiddler, and teacher. As a violinist, Paula recently finished her tenure with Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she got to perform with artists like Yo-Yo-Ma to create musical outreach programs in Chicago. She performs in orchestras all around the Chicagoland area, and has performed all around the world, from Carnegie Hall in New York, Matsumoto Castle in Japan, to the American Embassy in Luxembourg. In 2014, Ms Johannesen was asked to step in for a performance with the Whiskey Brothers, which started her off on an adventure in various folk styles- principally Irish, Scottish, and old-time. She is a Scottish Fiddle Champion and has placed in the Scottish Fiddling Revival (or Scottish F.I.R.E) annual National Scottish Fiddle Championships two years running.
Called “one of the brightest fiddlers around today”, multi-style violinist and champion fiddler Dr Mari Black delights audiences around the world with her energetic playing, sparkling stage presence, and dazzlingly virtuosic fiddling. Raised on a rich blend of traditional musical styles, Dr Black burst onto the international stage when she became Scotland’s Glenfiddich Fiddle Champion, two-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and two-time Canadian Maritime Fiddle Champion, all within a three-year period. Ever since, she has been spreading her love for dance-based music, performing as a featured artist at performing arts centers, Celtic festivals, Scottish Highland Games, celebrated folk venues, world music concert series, and acclaimed classical venues including Carnegie Hall. Dr Black’s passion for dance-driven music extends far beyond the concert stage, as reflected in her work as a teacher, composer, dancer, competition judge, and musical ambassador committed to connecting people through music. Having earned her Doctorate in Education from Columbia University and a Masters in Performance from the Yale School of Music, Mari is a master teacher who is dedicated to helping students of all ages and levels explore the joy of making music.
The Robert Burns Society of Charleston Inc. is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to celebrating and sustaining Scottish-American heritage in the South Carolina Lowcountry. This commitment includes the promotion of historical awareness, cultural expression, and military traditions associated with Scotland. The Society fulfills its mission by hosting educational and cultural activities, supporting the mastery of traditional Scottish arts—such as Highland Bagpiping, Highland Dance, Scottish Fiddle, Scottish Harp (Clàrsach), and the Scots Gaelic language—and by providing grants and scholarships that support academic advancement within the Scottish-American community.
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